Ask courthouse regulars about Mike Anderson, and they are not likely to connect the low-key former assistant district attorney and retired district court judge with Percy Foreman, the flamboyant Houston trial lawyer.

As a youngster, though, Anderson spent time in Huntsville with his grandfather, a barber with a shop on the courthouse square and Foreman's longtime friend. He grew up hearing Foreman tales, and they fueled his fascination with the law.

He finally got to see the legendary lawyer in action shortly after he went to work in the Harris County District Attorney's Office in 1982.

More Information

Michael Anderson

Age: 56

Experience: Assistant District Attorney, Harris County - 1982-1999

Judge, 262nd District Court - 1998-2010

"When he would object, he would stand up and he would keep standing up," Anderson recalled. "He was six-four, with this shock of white hair and his blue seersucker suit, he was just something. It was his room."

These days, as he campaigns to unseat incumbent district attorney and fellow Republican Pat Lykos, it is not the showmanship of a Percy Foreman that Anderson seeks to evoke. He is trying to make the case for a return to what he maintains was the competence and stability of the office under Lykos' predecessors, including Johnny Holmes Jr., the longtime district attorney who hired him.

"The reason I'm running is because the office is broken, and it needs fixing," Anderson said. "Under Lykos, the office has lost credibility with law enforcement, five special prosecutors are investigating the office and experienced prosecutors are leaving at an unprecedented rate."

Courthouse veteran

He also maintains Lykos is not qualified. "I just don't think you can run a district attorney's office if you've never been a prosecutor and if you've never tried a case."

Anderson, 56, is a 30-year courthouse veteran. He spent his early years in Pasadena and moved to Pearland before his junior year in high school; his parents were educators.

He got his undergraduate degree at Texas Lutheran University, where he was a strong safety on the football team, and his law degree from South Texas College of Law.

His plan, he said, was to be a civil lawyer, but he changed his mind after a friend suggested he interview with the Harris County District Attorney's Office. He came away inspired by the sense of mission and purpose in the office.

"As we talked, I just had a feeling about these guys and what they did and how special they were, and it threw me for a loop, because I had it all lined out."

17 years as prosecutor

He got the job, expecting to stay three years. He stayed 17, retiring as chief felony prosecutor of organized crime in 1999.

"He was one of the best lawyers in the office," said Casey O'Brien, a retired prosecutor and Anderson's partner on the Special Crimes Unit. "He could captivate a jury."

The unit's best-known trial was the 1993 cheerleader mom murder-for-hire case, but O'Brien called it "one of the least important."

Gaining trust

More often, Anderson recalled, he and O'Brien were prosecuting accused serial rapists, murderers, gang members. "The people in the different law enforcement agencies knew to come to us," he said, "so it was an honor that they trusted us with those cases, but also we got to try some very, very violent criminals."

One of those cases was the murder of 27-year-old Joe Anzaldua, whose head was bashed in with a dumbbell by a teenager trying to steal his Jeep.

"Mike was so good about keeping my mom and myself posted every step of the way," said Mario Anzaldua, the victim's brother.

Anderson was elected district court judge in 1998. He stayed 12 years. His wife, Devon, also a former assistant district attorney, was elected state district judge in 2005 and defeated in 2008. They have two young children.

Anderson spends much of his spare time coaching baseball and softball, in scouting and in other kid-related activities. He's also a bow hunter and fisherman and enjoys knocking around the family's cattle ranch in the Hill Country.

'State's-minded'

Even his detractors acknowledge that he's personable, but they also say that he retained his prosecutor's mentality after he ascended to the bench. He could be merciless, some lawyers say.

"As a judge, Mike Anderson was very formal," said defense attorney Norman Silverman. "I never had a problem with him, although as a judge he was state's-minded. I had to have all my i's dotted and t's crossed."

His detractors also say that his candidacy is an exercise in revanchism - revenge by members of an old guard resentful that an outsider, Lykos, wrested the office from their grasp in 2008.

Old boy network

Silverman, who is backing Lykos, holds to that theory. "When Holmes and (Chuck) Rosenthal ran that office, it was very much of a good-ol'-boy network," he said. "We had to copy offense notes by hand and could only take notes. Lykos has just brought a much more refreshing let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may attitude. She's been much more forthcoming with sharing information."

Anderson rejects the idea of revenge but agrees that he represents a return to an earlier way of running the office. "There are some things from the good, old days that are very, very important – honor, integrity, ethics," he said. "I mean all of those things should just flow like a heart beat at that office."

Holmes, who retired in 2000 after 21 years as district attorney, supports his former colleague. "I have no personal animosity toward Pat Lykos," he said, "but what's been happening in her office tells me she doesn't know what she's doing. This isn't on-the-job training."

Holmes added that if Anderson lost to Lykos in the primary, he would vote in the fall for the likely Democratic nominee, former assistant district attorney Zack Fertitta.

"He (Anderson) will take it back to the Johnny Holmes days," said defense attorney Dan Cogdell.